Amos was not a professional prophet or from the priestly tribe of Levi. Even in chapter 7:14
Amos protests boldly that he is not professionally or genetically associated with the prophets
when he rebukes one of the priest for rejecting him and his words from God. Amos confronts
Amaziah the priest by saying:

“I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me,
‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the Lord.”

The word for “shepherd” used in Amos 1:1 is not simply the word roeh which refers to someone
hired to watch the sheep. It is the plural of the word noqed (noqedim) which is a word also used
in 2 Kings 3:4 in reference to breeding sheep. In 7:14 Amos also calls himself a boqer or “herdsman.” In addition to this Amos added that he was “a dresser of sycamore trees. This involved piercing the figs to help them grow and scraping the figs to help resist insects. Amos was used to hard work and he had a variety of farming skills which he used for seasonal work at several locations in Judah.

Amos was from Tekoa which is 10 miles south of Jerusalem, 5 miles south of Bethlehem in the Judean Hill country with the Desert of Tekoa immediately to the east. God sent Amos from
Judah to prophecy to the northern land of Israel in the city of Bethel. There Amos warned the
leaders and the priests between the years 760-750 BC of the coming Assyrian dispersion if Israel didn’t repent. The professional priests and professional prophets (which was the only kind they
appear to be familiar with) rejected Amos and told him to go back to Judah to make his living
as a prophet there. They said:

“Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t’ prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” (Amos 7:12-13)

The professional prophets and priests in Bethel clearly could not discern between the reality
of being called and gifted in order to serve a nation with merely being educated and trained
in order to be employed in a nation.

The professional prophets and priests were employed by Israel’s King and worked for the people
of the land. They did not appreciate Amos speaking against the system that employed them.
Of course, Amos was in a sense, employed by someone greater than the king of Bethel.
He was working for a greater King from an enduring kingdom. Of course, the priests of Bethel
could not tolerate the words of Amos; just like the Great King that Amos served could not
tolerate the words and practices of Bethel. So, in 722 BC, Amos’ King, the Lord God,
destroyed Bethel with the Assyrian troops. He utterly wiped out the priests and the prophets
who had boldly served the worldly system of Bethel. Today we read and study the book of
Amos, but, in contrast, the only words of the Bethel priests and prophets we have available
are the ones that Amos incidentally recorded in his book.

“Today, few Americans are aware of the spiritual epidemic that wiped out the land of our Christian forefathers. Even fewer are aware that the same epidemic has reached our own shores, spreading like a virus.” – Ken Ham